MAPIT

The Harris Haunting

Most of us at some stage will invariably get married, have children and initially live somewhere that is not ideal for our needs. Eventually we will move to a house that is more suitable, this is how it happened for Chris and Lisa Harris who were filled with excitement at the prospect of moving into their newly built house. They, along with their two children, took possession of the property in November of 1996. They settled in quickly and started to prepare for Christmas. The only thorn was that they seemed to be losing personal items constantly.

Lisa agreed with Chris when he said that losing things was not unusual after a move, but it was infuriating. Christmas was almost upon them and they had wrapped the children's presents, except for one which appeared to be missing. They searched the house for the large musical mirror they had bought for their daughter, 5 year old Gemma. It was no where to be found and it was too late to buy another. They presumed that it had been left in the shop even though Lisa distinctly remembered putting it with the other presents in their wardrobe.

It was around this time that 10 month old Adam started to suffer from, what appeared to be, severe nocturnal Asthma attacks. Both Chris and Lisa expressed their concern as Adam would be gasping for breath and turning blue, as if he was terrified. Adam had some tests carried out at the local hospital and it was discovered that he was not Asthmatic, but he required further tests to determine the cause of his breathing difficulties.

Shortly after Christmas, Chris went to take a towel from the airing cupboard and to his surprise lying on top of the towels was the musical mirror. This posed a real mystery as both of them had been in the airing cupboard countless times and knew it wasn't there before. They told a friend of what had happened who suggested that they may have a ghost. The couple laughed but privately Lisa thought that it could be the answer after all, objects were still going missing.

Lisa came back from the shops one morning to find a potted house plant had been 'thrown' across the room. Framed family photographs were face down and there was a very strange smell invading the air. There was no one else in the house, but she thought that she may have disturbed a burglar. Nothing was missing, the doors and windows were secure, but they had an alarm fitted just to be sure. Adam still continued with his night terrors, and by January 1997 they received an appointment for some time in May to see a heart specialist. The only medical possibility left to explore was a hole in the heart.

Adam wasn't the only member of the family to have problems. Chris had become so depressed that he didn't want to get out of bed or even speak to anyone. He couldn't explain why he felt this way and it began to cause friction between the couple. One night after work, Lisa went for a well deserved soak in the bath. As usual she left the door slightly ajar and settled into a warm water. She began to read a novel, as she often did when she had time to herself. Lisa noticed Chris's hand on the door, she said come in, thinking that he had brought her a cup of tea. He didn't enter so she looked around to see a non descript strange man standing just outside the door. Lisa let out a terrified scream and the stranger simply vanished before her very eyes.

Chris ran upstairs stumbling once or twice, he had never heard Lisa scream before. He got to the bathroom door and flung it open. Lisa was sat there in a terrible state, he could hardly understand what she was saying. It was only later, when he had calmed her down that she realised that she was telling him that she'd seen a ghostly apparition of a man. From then on the activity in the house became more intense and the downstairs toilet and Adam's bedroom were extremely cold, even with the central heating on.

On another occasion, Lisa's friend also saw the apparition and had to be taken home, she vowed never to enter their house again. Objects moved of their own volition, the television set would switch on and the couples jewellery was no where to be found. Lisa saw the 'Man' several times. Once pleasant afternoon the family arrived home from a trip out, suddenly Gemma called out 'Daddy, there's a Master in your bedroom'. Chris was worried and ran up to investigate, but there was nobody around. The couple were puzzled by their daughter's use of the word 'Master', it was not a word she normally used to describe someone.

The decision was made to contact an investigator of the paranormal. MAPIT received a call on April 13th 1997 and investigators conducted an interview with the Harris's on April 15th. The couple recalled all events and showed them around the house. It was a cold day but the thermostat which controlled the central heating was set at 22 degrees C and the house was rather warm, with the exception of Adam's room and the downstairs toilet that read a temperature of 11-12 degrees C. It was very cold in both rooms, yet the radiators were very hot. They decided to carry out an overnight on site investigation at the property with the view to hopefully recording some form of anomalies.

April 27th 1997. Investigators arrived and quickly set about setting equipment up and conducting baseline tests. They noted no unusual electromagnetic fluctuations, no negative ions present and no unusual microwave energy. The magnetometer obtained no unusual readings yet the two rooms that had previously been temperature measured at 11-12 Degrees C was a normal 19 Degrees C despite the thermostat being now set even lower. The Harris's had sent their children to stay with a relative so that the investigators wouldn't be disturbed and could thoroughly investigate any of the rooms if necessary.

Photographs of all rooms were taken at random and video recording devices were set up. One in Adam's bedroom and another in the lounge. A number of trigger objects were also set which included a number of fridge magnets placed in a certain order on the fridge door. This procedure is sometimes undertaken in hope of coaxing some type of phenomena to rearrange them. The first occurrence took place when Lisa made a coffee. She placed three coasters on a small table in the lounge. The remaining three coasters were put back on the side of the television unit. Lisa then went back to the kitchen and brought her own coffee in. She walked over to the television unit and reached for a coaster herself; she suddenly paused with a confused look on her face. The remaining three coasters had gone.

Despite investigators sitting in the lounge, no one had seen anything unusual. They remembered the remaining coasters being put back on the side of the television unit, but did not see them disappear. It was at this time investigators realised that the video camera was pointing down the lounge to the kitchen doorwayv and not at the opposite side of the room where this incident had happened. In frustration the investigators set up the video camera in a diiferent location. This time near the kitchen doorway pointing to the television unit and the investigators themselves.
Approximately 20 minutes later Lisa took the empty coffee mugs back into the kitchen. No sooner had she got a few steps into the kitchen, Lisa shouted out 'here thery are'. The three remaining coasters was sat on the worktop next to the cooker...

2.21am, investigators were all sat chatting quietly in the lounge when Clair (one of the investigators) said she could hear something in the kitchen. Everyone looked towards the kitchen door, there was an odd scraping sound that lasted only seconds. On investigation, nothing unusual was found. At 2.24am Alicia (another investigator) looked over ar Chris and just froze. She seemed transfixed and looked rather pale. Clair shook Alicia's arm. Alicia turned and took a deep breath, 'Did you not just see that?', 'There was a man stood by the side of Chris's chair'. No one had apparently seen the man accept Alicia. She could not believe it, she had never experienced anything like that before. She could not understand why she was the only one to see it. She asked several times 'Are you joking - you must have seen it'.

Alicia seemed a little upset, she described the man to be dressed in what looked like 1940s clothing. He was grey in colour with a grey suit on and stood around six feet tall and his face was in profile. He looked to have no chin which gave him the appearance of an imbecile. He seemed to have no hands or legs and his body appeared to be 2 dimentional, meaning that it was flat against the wall. alcia went on to say, 'I noticed changes in myself as I was perceiving this event', 'such as an absence of sound. 'As I viewed the scene it occurred to me that the background seemed to rush away as the focus became clearer'. 'The apparition remained there for around 30 seconds and appeared to move further into the wall and faded away'. 'At that I felt Clair tug on my arm'.

Clair explained that she had tugged on Alicia's arm because she could clearly hear a mans voice coming from the kitchen. Clair had looked around the lounge and noted that no one was reacting to hearing this voice except Alicia who was staring at the wall. Clair got a bit scared and had grabbed Alicia's arm. Clair said that it was a definate voice of a man who seemed to be in conversation but could not actually remember what was being said. It suddenly dawned on Alicia that the video camera was in fact pointing in the correct position for the mic to have picked up any noises coming from the kitchen as well as capturing the investigators on camera whilst sat on the settee. After a rather long debate over what had happened, the Harris's retired to bed around 4.00am and the investigators sat in silence for about an hour.

5.00am another baseline test was carried out with no unusual findings, however just as the investigators had finished and sat back down, they suddenly heard music that seemed to be coming from upstairs, but they had just been upstairs and knew no television or radio was on. The investigators stood at the bottom of the stairs listening to music eminating from one of the bedrooms. As they were just about to heard up the staircase the music abruptely stopped. The investigators carried on, and checked all three bedrooms but could find nothing. No TV or radio was on. Alicia had accidentally woke Lisa up on entering the front bedroom. As Alicia just put her heard around the door Lisa sat up and asked if everything was ok. Alcia replied, 'Yes, everything's fine, did you hear any music playing'? Lisa had heard nothing yet had been lying there awake for at least 15 minutes or so. On inspection, no lights were on at either house next to them. Investigators were sure the music was coming from one of the bedrooms.

8.30am. Leaving the Harris's to sleep the investigators left leaving a note behind explaining that they would be in touch shortly. The following day, investigators went through the audio and video tapes. The audio tape recorder on the upstairs landing did record the investigators discussing where the music sound was coming from, but no sound of music could be heard. Very odd... Also, the video tape did capture Alicia staring at the lounge wall and Clair looking over at the kitchen in shock. This must have been the time when Alicia claimed to see the apparition and Clair heard the voice coming from the kitchen, yet no sound was heard coming from the kitchen on the video tape and it was also slightly pointing away from the chair Chris was sitting in earlier thus the footage only caught Alicia's reaction to her experience.

April 28th 1997. Alicia contacted Lisa who immediately asked if any of the investigators had removed the bedding in Adams bedroom. The investigators hadn't of course. The bedding was taken off Adams cot bed and placed on the floor. Lisa also said that she had noticed on entering the kitchen that four of her own fridge magnets were missing. Clair was sure she had only packed our own magnets into a bag and this was later confirmed after checking the bag. None of lIsa's magnets had been packed accidentally. Another mystery. All photographs taken during the investigation were developed. Nothing odd was found on the exposures except that, out of 48 photographs only 31 came out alright. The remaining were just completely black. Frustrating... so many reported incidents yet no evidence what so ever...

It is true to say the odd temperatures in the back bedroom and downstairs toilet was a bit of a mystery. As for Alicia and Clair's experience, they both are amazed that no one else either heard a voice in the kitchen or saw a tall man stood next to Chris's chair in the lounge. They both seemed a little shaken up by this. Alicia believes the apparition she saw was of a relatively tall man who was wearing clothing that looked like they were made during the 1940s and that he looked as if he was handikapped in someway.

Investigation of continued phenomena carried on until 1998 when incidents seem to suddenly stop. The family last reported everything as normal. No unusual sounds, things had stopped going missing, no more sightings of a man and Adam's mysterious illness vanished. Gemma never spoke on the 'master' again, Chris felt better and stopped taking medication for depression and Adam's night terrors stopped. All in all, there seemed to be no further disturbances.

In August 2001 investigators came across some interesting information. The census, death register and police incident reports confirmed the death of a Mr. Liams, through suicide in April of 1949 at 1, Heather Road, which according to the land registery office was where the Harris's home now stood. Police reports also confirmed that Mr. Liams was in fact handikapped and was often seen talking to himself...